For over fiÂve decades, Azim Hasham Premji has been one of the trailblazers of India Inc. Taking over his family business of vegetable oils at the young age of twenty-one after the untimely demise of his father, he built one of India’s most successful software companies along with a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate. As of 2019, he was the tenth richest person in India, with an estimated net worth of $7.2 billion. Yet, the one facet of the man which has overshadowed even his business achievements is his altruism. His commitment to the Azim Premji Foundation, a non-profiÂt focused on education, totals around $21 billion, making him one of the world’s top philanthropists. Azim Premji: The Man Beyond the Billions, the fiÂrst authoritative biography of the icon, shows how Premji is a philanthropist at heart and a businessman by choice – a man who wanted to give away his billions but realized early enough that he would Âfirst have to earn them. It peels the layers off Premji’s life while chronicling his professional and charitable work in the context of his many strengths and shortcomings.
Based on interviews with hundreds of current and past Wipro executives, who have over the years worked closely with him, as well as with competitors, analysts, family friends and industry associates, this is a journalists’ account of Premji the man, the businessman and the philanthropist.